


fragments of time

by KiraYoshikage



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-02
Updated: 2016-02-02
Packaged: 2018-05-17 19:48:06
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,370
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5883373
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KiraYoshikage/pseuds/KiraYoshikage
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Whoa hoh man, Vidalia invited Amethyst back over to her house after her visit with Steven! Alone, broh! You know what that means...Yep, it's time to reminisce on times long since past and be filled with anxiety about the future. And maybe some of that other stuff too! Maybe, tho.</p>
            </blockquote>





	fragments of time

**Author's Note:**

> timeframe is the day after onion friend!
> 
> can't guarantee a chapter 2 involving some Righteous Artistic Endeavors but it's likely!

Amethyst raised her hand to knock on the door for what felt like the fiftieth time before putting it back at her side again.

She was currently standing outside of Vidalia’s house as she had been for about ten minutes, her hands shaking at her sides. Before she left with Steven the previous day, Vidalia had asked Amethyst to come back the next evening by herself. Amethyst figured she knew what Vidalia was up to with an invitation like that, and she was surprised to find she was incredibly nervous.

Back before Rose passed away, Amethyst took a lot of private excursions out into Beach City proper. Pearl and Rose kept insisting she stay in the cave, but meeting Greg had awoken something in her. A desire to see the humans for herself, a desire to co-mingle and be with the humans like Rose was with Greg. So, she frequently went out on the town with Greg when nobody was looking, with days spent in the arcade and nights spent looking for trouble. One such night Amethyst found it down a dark alleyway-- clad in leather jacket, blonde hair, and a disgusted sneer.

_“You lost there, squirt?” the blonde woman asked._

_“What?” Amethyst asked. “No, I’m just lookin’ around.”_

_“Cause I’m pretty sure you’re lost. This ain’t your alleyway,” she said. She blew a huge bubble with the gum she was gnawing on, and popped it loudly._

_“Where the fuck does it say it’s yours, huh?” Amethyst asked, gesturing around the filthy alley walls._

_“I got two sets of brass knucks that say otherwise, you weird, purple creep,” the blonde woman intoned._

_“Oh, you in for it now,” Amethyst said, rolling up a sleeve. “You don’t fuck with a Crystal Gem!”_

_“A...what?” she asked, straightening up briefly. With only a snap second inbetween, Amethyst’s fist hit the woman’s jaw like an anchor, and she was sent reeling._

_The fight was short, but intense, leaving them both battered, bleeding and gasping for breath._

_“Pretty damn good, kid,” Vidalia said, wiping some of the blood from her lip. “Haven’t been whipped like that in a while. Literally, I guess.”_

_“You’re not bad...yourself…” Amethyst said, sinking down onto the ground._

_“What’d you say your name was? Crystal Meth?”_

_“What? No. I’m Amethyst, and I’m with the Crystal_ Gems. _”_

_“Crystal Gems? They some kinda gang I ain’t heard about?”_

_“No, we’re just a couple’a gems livin’ out on the beach,” Amethyst said, gesturing vaguely in the direction of the temple. Vidalia was quiet for a moment, but then snapped her fingers._

_“Oh, shit, you’re the guys who put up the fence with the weird polite-ass sign!” she said, pointing at Amethyst._

_“Yep, that’s us...well, Rose put up the one that says ‘please’.”_

_“Well Amethyst the Crystal Gem, it’s nice to meet ya. Name’s Vidalia.”_

_Vidalia extended a bruised hand to Amethyst, who grabbed it and stood up with her help._

_“Nice to beat ya, Vidalia.”_

After that, Greg came sprinting into the alley, shocked to find both of his friends bloodied and sore. Greg explained to each other what was happening and after that Amethyst and Vidalia became fast friends. It wasn’t long before the two were best friends and, more importantly, confidants. 

It was perfect for both of them; Amethyst was completely out of Vidalia’s sphere of friends and Vidalia was completely out of the Crystal Gems’ eyes, ensuring neither of them ended up mucking up each others’ lives. So it didn’t take long for them to start pouring their troubles out into each other inbetween minor acts of vandalism and the occasional joyride.

One of Vidalia’s secrets was that she loved painting and other sorts of artistic endeavors; she felt it to be her real calling. However, due to her tough bitch appearance she couldn’t go out and take classes like she wanted, or else risk getting laughed at by the rest of her crew. Amethyst inquired further, and found the thing to get Vidalia started was a subject. The college had live figure drawing classes, which were perfect; but not for a woman seen usually with brass knuckles in hand rather than a pencil. Without thinking about it, Amethyst had offered herself as a subject. After all, uglier people have been painted and drawn across time; she'd seen them, even. Why not help a friend in need?

When Amethyst had offered, she only knew Vidalia had mentioned live figure drawing classes. What she hadn’t mentioned was that the figures were usually nude or mostly nude.

 _“Nude? What, like_ naked _nude?”_

_“Yeah. I mean, the purpose of it is to get used to drawin’ how muscles look and contour to the body. Can’t see that if you got your clothes on.”_

_“Man, I dunno Vidalia…”_

_“You don’t gotta, I can work around it if you don’t want to.”_

_“No, I mean like...I haven’t been like that before. Not in front of anyone, anyway…”_

_“What, like, ever ever?” Vidalia asked, quirking a brow._

_“Never, man. Our clothes don’t really need to be washed, and there’s never a good reason to take ‘em off otherwise, so...”_

_“That’s so wacky. You Gem guys are crazy, you know?” Vidalia said, laughing. Amethyst just flushed a deep violet at the cajoling. She was never good at taking what she herself often dished out._

_“Ugh, man, whatever,” Amethyst said, and turned to leave._

_“Wait wait wait!” Vidalia said, reaching her hands towards Amethyst. “I’m sorry for pokin’ fun. But if you want, I’ll get naked too, ok?”_

_“What?” Amethyst said, turning back around. “Wh-- you?”_

_“Yeah, come on, it’ll be fun,” Vidalia said, grinning. “Two super cool tough gals bein’ super hetero and sitting around naked. We’ll be on an even keel and everything.”_

_“Hetero?” Amethyst said, quirking her head._

_“Hah! Never mind, nothin’ worth explaining. So you interested?”_

_Amethyst fiddled with the hem of her shirt. She was interested, she was really, really interested, but it was still a bit nervewracking. She was nervous about being exposed, true, but moreover she was nervous about being exposed like that in front of Vidalia._

_It made her feel overheated, like her gem was working too hard; she could feel its vibrations thrumming hard through her whole body. The concept of Vidalia being the same way also only served to make her even more nervous. Vidalia was...pretty. Really pretty. Rose and Pearl and Garnet were pretty too, but Vidalia was...something else entirely._

Amethyst knew now that she was attracted to Vidalia, that Vidalia was hot as hell, that she wanted to _ride Vidalia into the fucking sunset_ but she didn’t know that at the time. At the time all she felt was an overwhelming heat in the pit of her stomach, a trembling in her gem and a seemingly endless number of questions multiplying in her head.

So, eventually Amethyst finally agreed, and they turned away from each other, shedding their clothes. Both women turned around and gave each other a good once over, and then both realized that the last thing either of them wanted to do for the moment was learn how to draw.

However, that was twenty years ago, and the woman she looked at then was not the same woman she looked at yesterday. Was she still the same, if they got talking? Could they even relate to each other anymore, or was she destined to fall away like Greg had?

Suddenly, the door to the house swung open wide, startling Amethyst. She fell off the step in front of the door, landing on her back. Vidalia stood in the doorway and gave a quick yelp as she realized someone was there.

“Amethyst!” Vidalia said, holding a hand to her chest. “Christ, you just about gave me a heart attack. I didn’t think you were comin’.”

“Hi, Vidalia,” Amethyst said, waving her hand vaguely. “Sorry I’m late.”

“Ahh, forget about that ‘sorry’ shit, come in, come in!” Vidalia said, gesturing for Amethyst to enter. Amethyst stood up and brushed off the various pebbles stuck to her ass before walking in.

She had just been here yesterday, but without Steven to distract her, Amethyst finally really took in her surroundings. The striped wallpaper, the plants, the quaint furniture...it was all so different from the tough-as-nails woman she knew just a decade or two prior. If not for all the art featuring Amethyst, she would’ve had a hard time believing it was Vidalia in the first place.

Amethyst took a deep breath. It didn’t make her uncomfortable, it was just...different. Weird. Humans changed so quickly, and although she had Greg there to remind her, seeing her other best friend so deeply changed drove it home all over again.

“Go ahead and take a seat,” Vidalia said, gesturing to the couch in the living room. “I’ll get us something to drink. You still take your coffee irish?”

“Come oooon, Vidalia!” Amethyst said, flopping onto the couch. “You know I take my anything--”

“With anything, yeah, yeah, I’ve heard it before,” Vidalia said, laughing.

Vidalia seemed to return within seconds, a cup of coffee in each hand. She placed one in front of Amethyst and sat down, taking a drink out of her own cup.

“Fuck, man, I still don’t know how you do that,” Amethyst said, smiling.

“Trade secret,” Vidalia said. “Gotta keep coffee on hand at all times when you’re paintin’. You know that.”

“God, twenty years later and you’re feeding me the same old bullshit!” Amethyst said, punching Vidalia in the arm playfully. Vidalia laughed, rubbing the spot with her free hand.

The two sat in silence for a moment as they drank from their mugs. The sharp, bitter taste of the coffee swept over Amethyst’s taste buds, unpleasantly mixed with some kind of absurdly cheap whiskey. Amethyst coughed, the burn settling in the back of her throat. It was completely awful. Just the way she liked.

“Whaaat, can’t even handle a little Wild Turkey anymore?” Vidalia said, looking at Amethyst out of the side of her eye. “The hell they feedin’ you over at the temple?”

Amethyst paused for a moment to let the burn fade away, thinking again about the time passed. This time, she couldn’t playfully bat it away.

“Vidalia, why’d you ask me over here?” she asked, looking up into Vidalia’s face. Vidalia didn’t seem to miss a beat, though, and took the blunt question in stride.

“Thought it was obvious,” Vidalia replied. “Get the gang back together, yeah?”

“What? You, me, n’ Greg?”

“Nah, nah, just-- a euphemism. I mean, I wanna reconnect a bit, you know? Maybe do some painting, if you’re up to it.”

Amethyst paused again.

“Painting, or, ah... _painting?_ ” Amethyst asked, trying to be delicate.

“Little of column A, little of column B...whatever you’re up to, Ammy. Maybe even nothin’ at all, we can just keep drinkin’ ‘til the sun goes down.”

“But, you’re…” Amethyst glanced down at the gold ring on Vidalia’s finger.

“Hm?” Vidalia grunted, then followed Amethyst’s gaze to her finger. “Ahh. Yeah. Well, I dunno what Greg told you about marriage, but…”

“Said it’s pretty important you don’t step out of that, Vidalia,” Amethyst said, grimacing.

“Maybe for him. Greg was always a romantic. Yellowtail and I, we...hell, we’re both old fucks, who we kidding. Both a little ravaged by the world too; him by the sea, me by my boys. Both having ‘em and raising ‘em. We fought some about it few years back, but we came to an accord, you know?” Vidalia sighed, staring deep into her mug and smiling.

“With me gettin’ all crotchety like this, I don’t wanna just be tied down to the week and a half he’s home every month. I still love him, all my heart, and I especially love my boys, but I’m not gonna just be some damn fisherman’s wife, pining by the window while he’s gone. ‘The captain of her heart,’ hah, what a load of shit.

“Ammy, you know me! I gotta be out there! I gotta paint, I gotta drink, I gotta taste the life left inbetween each crack on the boardwalk and yeah, every now and then I gotta fuck too. Cause long as I’m still there for my family, who really gives a shit what I do with my time?”

Amethyst’s eyes were wide as she listened. The wisdom was a bit beyond her, but she realized she was finally starting to see it-- the true Vidalia shining through the wrinkles creasing her face. The one who taught Amethyst how to live for herself and the things she cared about, no holds barred and no questions asked.

There was a long pause before Amethyst could fashion a response.

“I...guess I hadn’t thought of it like that,” Amethyst said, letting her hair hang in front of her face a bit. She felt shame burning her face; how could she have possibly thought that her friend was gone? She was different in so many ways, yes, but she was still the same in so many ways, too.

“Course you hadn’t. Ammy you’re like 500 years or whatever the hell now, but you haven’t changed a bit,” Vidalia said, draining the rest of her mug.

“And you’ve changed so much in only 20 years,” Amethyst said. “It’s a little scary. ...I was standing outside for like a half hour trying to get up the courage to knock on the door.”

“Can’t say I’m surprised. I know it’s a little weird seein’ me like this. It’s frankly a little weird for me to see that you only changed your wardrobe.”

“Sorry bout that,” Amethyst said, tugging at her shirt.

“Look, look. I said, no more of that ‘sorry’ shit. The point is, we still got each other here and now. Let’s enjoy it, okay?”

Vidalia reach a hand out and lifted Amethyst’s chin up, brushing some of the hair out of her face with the other hand. For a brief moment, Amethyst could’ve sworn she saw the smooth, paint-and-blood-caked face of her friend from long ago.

“So…” Vidalia said, smirking. “You interested?”

Amethyst smiled. This time, she didn’t need to hesitate.

“Hell yeah.”

**Author's Note:**

> it occurs to me that maybe you'd like to follow what i'm doin?? heck i dunno. you can find my SU tumbl at http://stevitronuniverse.tumblr.com or if you just wanna keep up with fic updates you can follow http://kira-yoshficage.tumblr.com ! drop me a line my dude


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